Confessions of a Wayward Anthropologist: Secrets of Language Learning (2)

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} table.MsoTableGrid {mso-style-name:"Table Grid"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-priority:59; mso-style-unhide:no; border:solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-border-insideh:.5pt solid windowtext; mso-border-insidev:.5pt solid windowtext; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} In my first fieldwork, right after graduating college, I was faced with learning two languages. Fortunately, Peace Corps taught us Pijin, but we had to learn Kwaio on our own. There were no textbooks, it was not a written language (although missionaries had devised a phonetic writing system), and the dictionary was by an anthropologist, so not all that useful for everyday usage.Fortunately those missionary linguists who develop writing systems for languages around the world so that they could have potential converts read the Bible are darned good linguists. One of them gave us lovely little book about how to learn an unwritten language. We followed that book like, well, the bible.  And we learned Kwaio. We not only learned Kwaio, I developed a literacy program for the Kwaio-initiated schools. (As far as I can recall the book was Alan Healey, editor. 1975. Language Learner’s Field Guide. Ukarumpa, EHD, Papua New Guinea: Summer Institute of Linguistics Printing Department.)   Your basic problem with language is increasing your vocabulary and that requires memorization. Obviously, you should use flashcards, but those do not work. Why? Because you are not moving your vocabulary from short-term to long-term memory. If you memorize a hundred words for the weekly quiz, great, but do you remember those in 2 weeks? Maybe, maybe not.  It’s very frustrating. It is not sticking in your long-term memory.  How do you get it there?The Secret is to stagger your flashcards. The technical term, it turns out, is called spaced repetition. This is what I do (I have used it for every single language I have learned since I learned Kwaio, btw).Each day, select a set of 10 (not more!) vocabularies words to memorize. That’s Set 1.When you make up Set 1, make a cover card with dates. The dates will be Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 5, Day 10, Day 17, Day 41, Day 71, Day 131 … and that’s it.  If there are any words in that set that you do not remember at the end of that time, you can cycle them back into a new set at the end of that time. [nb, you can add in a day after Day 17, on Day 28, in which case your schedule will be 17, 28, 58, 128, 218.]Only 10 cards?  What?  You have way more to memorize than that, don’t you? Yup.So, on Day 2, you make up another set and you label that Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 6, Day 11, Day 18, Day 42, Day 72, Day 132.On Day 3, you make up yet another set and you label that Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 7, Day 12, Day 19, Day 43, Day 73, Day 133.On Day 4, the set is Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 8, Day 13, Day 20, Day 44, Day 74, Day 134.Day 5, the set is Day 5, 6, 7, 9, 14, 21, 45, 75, 135.Day 6, the set is Day 6, 7, 8, 10, 15, 22, 46, 76, 136.Obviously, you need to figure this out with a calendar – I put the actual dates on the covers for the flashcard, otherwise it’s confusing.It will look like this (sort of – in fact, doing it this way is a bit confusing, I am sure I missed some dates. The point is to let you see what your flashcard exercises will look like from week to week).   March 1Set 1 March 2Set 1Set 2 March 3Set 1Set 2Set 3 March 4Set 2Set 3Set 4 March 5Set 1Set 3Set 4Set 5 March 6Set 2Set 4Set 5Set 6 March 7Set 3Set 5Set 6Set 7 March 8Set 4Set 6Set 7Set 8 March 9Set 5Set 7Set 8Set 9 March 10Set 1Set 6Set 8Set 9Set 10 March 11Set 2Set 7Set 9Set 10Set 11 March 12Set 3Set 8Set 10Set 11Set 12 March 13Set 4Set 9Set 11Set 12Set 13 March 14Set 5Set 10Set 12Set 13Set 14 March 15Set 6Set 11Set 13Set 14Set 15 March 16Set 7Set 12Set 14Set 15Set 16 March 17Set 1Set 8Set 13Set 15Set 16Set 17 March 18Set 2Set 14Set 17Set 18 March 19Set 3Set 15Set 17Set 18Set 19 March 20Set 4Set 11Set 16Set 18Set 19Set 20 March 21Set 5Set 12Set 17Set 19Set 20Set 21 March 22Set 6Set 13Set 18Set 20Set 21Set 22 March 23Set 7Set 14Set 19Set 21Set 22Set 23 March 24Set 8Set 15Set 20Set 22Set 23Set 24 March 25Set 9Set 16Set 21Set 23Set 24Set 25 March 26Set 10Set 17Set 22Set 24Set 25Set 26 March 27Set 11Set 18Set 23Set 25Set 26Set 27 March 28Set 12Set 19Set 24Set 26Set 27Set 28 March 30Set 13Set 20Set 25Set 27Set 28Set 29 March 31Set 14Set 21Set 26Set 28Set 29Set 30 April 1Set 15Set 22Set 27Set 29Set 30Set 31 April 2Set 16Set 23Set 28Set 30Set 31Set 32 April 3Set 17Set 24Set 29Set 31Set 32Set 33 April 4Set 18Set 25Set 30Set 32Set 33Set 34 April 5Set 19Set 26Set 31Set 33Set 34Set 35 April 6Set 20Set 27Set 32Set 34Set 35Set 36 April 7Set 21Set 28Set 33Set 35Set 36Set 37 April 8Set 22Set 29Set 34Set 36Set 37Set 38 April 9Set 23Set 30Set 35Set 37Set 38Set 39 April 10Set 1Set 24Set 31Set 36Set 38Set 39Set 40 April 11Set 2Set 25Set 32Set 37Set 39Set 40Set 41 April 12Set 3Set 26Set 33Set 38Set 40Set 41Set 42 April 13Set 4Set 27Set 34Set 39Set 41Set 42Set 43 April 14Set 5Set 28Set 35Set 40Set 42Set 43Set 44 April 15Set 6Set 29Set 36Set 41Set 43Set 44Set 45 April 16Set 7Set 30Set 37Set 42Set 44Set 45Set 46 April 17Set 8Set 31Set 38Set 43Set 45Set 46Set 47 April 18Set 9Set 32Set 39Set 44Set 46Set 47Set 48 April 19Set 10Set 33Set 40Set 45Set 47Set 48Set 49 April 20Set 11Set 34Set 41Set 46Set 48Set 49Set 50… and so on April 21Set 12Set 35Set 42Set 47Set 49Set 50 April 22Set 13Set 36Set 43Set 48Set 50 April 23Set 14Set 37Set 44Set 49 April 24Set 15Set 38Set 45Set 50 April 25Set 16Set 39Set 46 April 26Set 17Set 40Set 47 April 27Set 18Set 41Set 48 April 28Set 19Set 42Set 49 April 29Set 20Set 43Set 50 April 30Set 21Set 44 May 1Set 22Set 45 May 2Set 23Set 46 May 3Set 24Set 47 May 4Set 25Set 48 May 5Set 26Set 49 May 6Set 27Set 50 May 7Set 28 May 8Set 29 May 9Set 30 May 10Set 31 May 11Set 1Set 32 May 12Set 2Set 33 May 13Set 3Set 34 May 14Set 4Set 35 May 15Set 5Set 36 May 16Set 6Set 37 May 17Set 7Set 38 May 18Set 8Set 39 May 19Set 9Set 40 May 20Set 10Set 41 May 21Set 11Set 42 May 22Set 12Set 43 May 23Set 13Set 44 May 24Set 14Set 45 May 25Set 15Set 46 May 26Set 16Set 47 May 27Set 17Set 48 May 28Set 18Set 49 May 29Set 19Set 50 May 31Set 20 May 31Set 21 June 1Set 22 June 2Set 23 June 3Set 24 June 4Set 25 June 5Set 26 June 6Set 27 June 7Set 28 June 8Set 29 June 9Set 30 June 10Set 31 June 11Set 32 June 12Set 33 June 13Set 34 June 14Set 35 June 15Set 36 June 16Set 37 June 17Set 38 June 18Set 39 June 19Set 40 June 20Set 41 June 21Set 42 June 22Set 43 June 23Set 44 June 24Set 45 June 25Set 46 June 26Set 47 June 27Set 48 June 28Set 49 June 29Set 50 June 30 July 1 July 2 July 4 July 5 July 6 July 7 July 8 July 9 July 10 July 11Set 1 July 12Set 2 July 13Set 3… and so on I laid this out so that you can see why you only have 10 flashcards in a group – they add up. On some days, you will be doing 70 words a night! But note that on some of those days, such as April 20, two of those sets are older sets and you will likely go through those pretty quickly. They might be words that you use fairly regularly in class, or just often enough for you to recognize them quite quickly.  You will likely have to work hardest at the newest flashcards on days 1-5. Still, you need to be aware of this scheduling so as not to overload yourself.Another advantage of this system is that instead of memorizing a big batch of cards all together, these are split up. When you use a language, the words are not conveniently grouped according to your flashcard organization. You need to mix it up, learn the words in different contexts. This system helps with that. You will variously do Set 4 with Sets 2, 3, 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 16, 18, 19, 20, 27, 34, 39, 41, 42, 43, 35, 134 … This improves your ability to remember vocabulary in new contexts.  Obviously this system is not in concordance with the semester schedule. For one thing, you probably focus on vocabulary memorization leading up to a quiz or test, whereas this is an everyday activity.  Every. Single. Day. This is regardless of how much new vocabulary is assigned in any given week.  Finally, the schedule goes beyond the semester. And who wants to study after the semester is over?You do. The only way to learn a language (or at least pass your classes) is to memorize. Use a system and just plain memorize.  Keep going after the semester is over (even if you do not add new flashcard groups) so that you will start the second semester strong.  A final hint: memorize as your last activity at night before going to sleep. That vastly improves your retention. This is my ‘secret.’ Devote a lot of time to memorization, especially in the first semester or two of language learning – schedule that time in – so that you will build up the vocabulary to comprehend the language.  There is no short-cut around this. You simply haven’t got the vocabulary to enjoy conversations or reading short stories, so build the vocabulary. But know that it’s just time, like a game. Get your vocabulary from short-term to long-term memory, and you will do better.And, btw, you also need to be willing to make fool of yourself as you try to speak. But the language-learner as village idiot is a topic for another blog.